


Beyond Breakbone Ridge

by Quieta



Category: Original Work
Genre: Abandoned Mines, Appalachian Gothic, Bullying, Creampie, F/M, Forced Cunnilingus, High School, Physical Abuse, Psychological Horror, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sexual Harassment, Things in the Woods, the dog lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:06:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23384230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quieta/pseuds/Quieta
Summary: Relentlessly bullied at school and living with her grandparents, Luanne Lowry's life is nothing but neverending misery. Jason, her tormentor since childhood, is beginning to take an unsettling interest in her. But while hunting one day, she stumbles upon something that will change her life forever.
Relationships: Bully/Victim
Comments: 43
Kudos: 191





	Beyond Breakbone Ridge

The sky was dim and gray, the same color as the cracked, pothole-ridden street. Houses with licks of rot streaking their sides lined the street; small, boxy trailers with patched roofs and overgrown yards.

McDowell County, West Virginia, existed in a sort of stasis. People had little and made do with it, the way it had always been. The ridges of the mountains closed them in, reaching up shrouded with mist. Closed-up storefronts stared sullenly at the schoolchildren as they passed by. A young grandmother with a slack belly smoked a cigarette and watched the children pass by from the shelter of her porch.

Small flecks of snow drifted down from the white sky. They found the black, slick sidewalk and evaporated immediately. Muddy boots crushed on top of them, joining the fast-trickling stream that flooded into the tall brick high school. 

Luanne kept her head down as she joined the bustle, heading upstairs to the lockers. Someone shoved her harshly, shoulder forcing past her. "Out of the way, dyke," he said, their favorite insult for the girl with the blonde mullet.

She put her head down and went to her locker. As soon as she opened it, she knew something was wrong.

The inside was defaced with spraypainted graffiti and slurs. SLUT. DYKE. WHORE.

Her textbooks were open, and pages had been torn out of them from the front and back, leaving ragged gaps in the pages.

"Thought you needed a little pick me up, Lulu. Cause you did so badly last History exam." A sly, perky female's voice chirruped.

Luanne turned around. Jason McLaughlin, Amber Avery, and their little clique were circling her in that casual, semi-predatory way, sneers on their faces. Amber Avery was a senior--head cheerleader and class treasurer, a tall, slim, muscular girl with long, silky brown hair cut in sharp bangs across her forehead and baby blue eyes that turned the male teachers into gibbering puddles. She was more catty than anything, usually content to gossip loudly about her in earshot, but when paired with Jason McLaughlin became a holy terror.

Jason McLaughlin was also a senior, which relieved Luanne immensely, as it meant only a few more months until she was rid of him entirely. She had been waiting for that since she was a young child… he terrified her. 

Jason had given her hell ever since they were seated next to each other during elementary school, and he decided to make her the object of his torments. Tacks on her seats, pulling her hair, yanking her tray during lunchtime so that her food spilled down her front. And as he got older, he resorted to more imaginative cruelties. He saw nothing wrong with ripping her books up, starting rumors that she'd fucked the janitor, shoving her into her locker, and at one point, kicking her ankles when she was walking in front of him--so hard she'd gotten a bone fracture. Once, during a soccer game, he had pulled her tank top down to show her breasts to everyone on the field. She stopped playing soccer after that.

Luanne hated to be alone with him now. Hated, and was frightened to. He was the head of the football team, son of the local Sheriff, and a member of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps with a bright career in law enforcement ahead of him. He was tall and well-built, wearing a sleeveless blue shirt to show off the curved muscles in his arms and chest grown from years of body checking other high schoolers on the football field. His face did wonders for his reputation--in addition to his ripped body, he had model good looks; feathery brown hair and a strong, broad bowline jaw. His eyes were a baby green that would have seemed charming in any other context, but looked like pure poison now as they crinkled slightly from a wide, nasty grin.

"Lu-Luuuu doesn't have much time to study. I bet her grandparents are always sending her out for meth to get high on. Just like her mother." 

Shanton was a small town, and word got around fast. That Luanne was the daughter of a methed up junkie had been common knowledge since she was in kindergarten, and they had made sure she'd known it.

" 'cept she probably can't even trick for meth. She's too ugly, with those glasses and that haircut." Amber gave a petulant smirk, tilting her hips back and forth.

Luanne turned back to her books, closed them all, and automatically locked her locker.

 _Don't engage. Don't engage._ She repeated the mantra even as their words started to get to her and her nose began to sting as tears welled in her eyes. She wanted to scream at them to leave her mom the _fuck_ out of it. She didn't even like _thinking_ of her mother and yet they had to remind her.

"Nah. She's a dyke. Always has been. Her and her ugly friend have been eating each other out in the supply closets prob'ly since they were in junior high." 

Luanne thought of her best friend in a fleeting second, and of their friendship, and something in her felt nauseated for a brief moment. But that was nothing unusual either. Her and Jannan had been the subject of many such rumors before.

"Well, if she's good enough for the janitor, she's probably good enough for the ugly scabby methheads that deal on Henthorne Street." The sneering tone of Jason's voice pierced her ears.

Thankfully, at that moment, the bell rang. First period for seniors. Their little clique began to disperse, but as Jason passed her, he casually checked her with his elbow so that her face hit the sharp edge of her locker. Blood and tears began to well as she clutched her face, and Jason's laugh rose above the chatter in the hallway.

***

Luanne checked her nose in the mirror.

The bathroom on the far side of the school was a bit of a hike, but it was usually empty at this time of day, which was what mattered. When the bullying got too bad she would lock herself in a stall and cry. She had spent more lunchtimes than not in the bathroom that year.

The blood was slowing to a trickle. She grabbed a handful of paper towels and wiped her bloody nose clean. In the smeared and stained mirror she saw a gangly teenage girl with glasses too big for her face and a rough yellow mullet. Her dingy blue eyes were watery.

Like her friend Janann said. _Keep your head down. Don't cause trouble. They'll get bored eventually and move onto someone else._

What bothered her was, they had not gotten bored. They--and especially Jason--got the same satisfaction out of tormenting her since they had started in elementary school.

Luanne looked at her nose again. It had stopped bleeding and was only swelling. She went into a stall and sat down heavily, and buried her face in her hands.

 _It's just one year,_ she told herself over and over. _Then this whole town will be behind you. Every single shitty person who ever gave you a hard time, they'll all be rotting here and you'll be_ free _._

***

It was a long walk back home. Luanne lived just outside of town, at the edge of the forest. The dirt road to her house had turned into a river of mud, and the bottoms of her jeans were soaked by the time her house came into view.

She lived in a small one-story farmhouse that had once been bright butter-yellow but now took on a dark, peeling, pissy cast. A satellite dish wobbled precariously on the roof, and smoke spiralled out of the lopsided chimney to dissipate in the already gray sky.

Her blue tick coonhound, Buddy, sprang from the porch and hit her head on, tail wagging and muzzle licking up a storm. His fur was wet and his paws left mud tracks on her sweater, but she hugged him anyway. "Good boy! Down, Buddy! Down!"

Luanne heard her grandparents screaming at each other before she reached the steps. This fight was a bad one. She tossed her backpack against the porch's wall and sat down against it, the rotten wood cold underneath her. She'd wait before braving the atmosphere inside the house. She'd gotten in the middle of their fights before, and hadn't liked it.

Buddy trotted up, plunked himself on top of her lap, and began to chew on his leg. Luanne wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his fur, inhaling the smell of wet dog. It was a comforting and familiar smell. Buddy had never yelled at her or hit her or blown harsh smoke into her face. He had never dragged her between two people and demanded she take a side when all she wanted to was hide underneath her covers and cry.

Luanne's Grandma Terry and Grandpa Mike had raised her since she was seven. Luanne remembered little about life before then, except the smell of chemical smoke and the perpetual gnawing hunger in her belly. Her dad had run out on her before she was born, and after her mom got busted for meth, her grandparents were stuck with her. Mom's jail was fifty miles away and Luanne rarely made the trip. 

The yells had abruptly stopped, to be replaced by a dead, furious quiet. Luanne pushed Buddy off her and went through the screen door.

Grandma Terry was sitting at the kitchen table, smoking like a chimney, the overflowing ashtray tipping Luanne off immediately as to her mental state. Luanne knew immediately that she was due to get caught in the middle of their bullshit.

"That son of a bitch… that fucking cocksucker. Your grandfather is the most bullheaded prick I've ever met, can you believe what he said to me?"

Luanne didn't answer, but grabbed her winter coat and her rifle from the closet and made for the porch. Buddy scrambled up, tail wagging and eager to accompany her.

"Where you goin', Lulu?"

"I'm going to check the squirrel traps!" She shouted out the door, hoping to Christ they would have made up by the time she went back. 

***

Luanne and Buddy were halfway down the lonely stretch of road that led to Breakbone Ridge when the telltale rumbling of a truck sounded in the distance. She moved to the side of the road but it was too late--she recognized the beat-up truck, and it recognized her too. It slowed down and the window rolled down. It was filled with pot smoke and rowdy men, and when the driver poked his head out, she felt the familiar sludge of mistrust rise again within her. "Hi, Jason."

"What the fuck are you doing here all alone?" He had a toothpick in his mouth, which he slowly chewed as he eyed her. He had a cocky sneer on his face, and his muscled arm hanging halfway out the window.

"Hunting. Breakbone Ridge," Luanne answered politely but shortly, wanting this conversation to be over with. "It's gun season comin' up."

"No shit," said another of the boys, wearing a backwards baseball cap. "My uncle hunts there."

"Kid like you should be watching herself. Lots of dangerous shit in the woods. Only so much a five foot dweeb with a rifle heavier than she is, can do when a bear's comin at ya. I bet you don't even know how to use that thing. I bet I could get a bear from a hundred fuckin yards." Jason turned his head, and the the others laughed. The sweat-soaked tips of his hair brushed his muscular shoulders, and when he looked back, his handsome face was set in a cruel, snakelike grimace.

"You should take me along sometime so I can give ya a hand and show you how to actually shoot a gun and not just pose with it. Fuckin slut. I bet all you know is how to--" he leaned closer to her ear-- " _suck cock."_

Luanne squeezed her eyes shut, praying that the other boys in the car hadn't heard, but the ripple of laughter proved her wrong.

"Might see you up there sometime," sneered Jason as he gunned the engine.

 _I sure fucking hope not._ "See you later."

"Don't shoot yourself, four-eyes _._ " The window rolled down among peals of laughter, and the truck rolled past her.

Once it was gone, she began her trek again, the rifle weighing heavy on her shoulder, as heavy as her heart.

Luanne had set her traps up on the very top of Breakbone Ridge, a towering ridge of a mountain that was a near ninety degree angle upwards. She grabbed tree branches to stabilize herself as she struggled up the steep mountainside. The wet ground made it easy to slip, and by the time she struggled over, the knees of her jeans were soaked and her arms up to the elbows were covered in mud.

On the other side of the mountain it became flatter. It was midwinter. The snowy hills and vast reams of pine trees huddled around her, and the skeletons of the barer trees spidered into the sky. Trees and bushes were covered by a thick blanket of snow, clinging to their branches. Rotting leaves sunk underneath her boots as she followed the trail to where her traps were set up. Buddy began barking up a storm, and ran ahead.

To her disbelief, there were none. Not a single squirrel had been caught. It was very unusual--at time of year she would at least snare several. But this time--and the last few times she had checked--the traps were all empty.

In fact, she hadn't seen any trace of an animal at all around here lately. No deer tracks, no raccoon scat, nothing. Even for this late in winter, it was unusual. 

Buddy was still barking.

"Buddy! Quiet down!"

He was on his hind legs, claws scrabbling at the trunk of a tree, yelping and howling incessantly with his entire body straining upward.

"What's wrong, Buddy? You treed a coon?" Luanne tilted her head back, eyes searching the bare, tangled branches of the tall, tall tree, searching for a--

When she saw it, for the briefest moment, it didn't even register. She blinked, expecting it to be gone when she opened her eyes.

It wasn't.

***

Far, far above them, hanging distended in the tallest branches, was the corpse of a deer. At least, she thought it was. The top half was definitely a deer, neck grotesquely bent backwards and antler snapped to dangle by a thread. But the lower part--

The lower part had been stripped clean of flesh. It was pure, bare white, like the snow on the branches surrounding it. Like it had been dissolved in acid, she could see its pale rib cage, every bone intact. The slender bone of its leg, so perfect and untouched.

Luanne's spine stiffened, and even in the cold, warm sweat started across her brow.

What animal could have done this? To leave the top part, but strip the bottom part so cleanly? To leave it so very far up in a tree?

Was an animal even _capable_ of doing that?

Buddy was looking into the trees down the trail, stiff and ears pricked. She looked down the deer trail that led through the trees. It was covered in a thick layer of decomposing leaves, and would have been invisible save for the depression it made in the ground. It looped into the thick, looming pines, and disappeared into the darkness.

"What's wrong, Buddy? You see a squirrel?"

Buddy did not move or even acknowledge her voice, just kept staring. 

"C'mon, boy, let's look a little farther ahead. Maybe this here place has just been hunted out." She set off onto the trail, but not before casting one long glance up at the deer carcass in the trees. 

Maybe it was a mountain lion. They liked to stash their prey in trees. Although it still bothered her. That was a _long_ way up.

***

Buddy trotted along behind her, his pawsteps and her bootsteps the only sound in the dead silent forest. Not even a bird chirped. 

The trail led down the mountain, a slower incline. She'd never taken it this far. Luanne wasn't sure who owned the land--it may have been company land. It was untouched in any case, nothing but miles of wilderness.

Something loomed in the distance, something tall and blotting out the sun. Even with it half-shrouded by the pines, she could tell what it was. As she came closer, she was affirmed--it was an old coal building, 

Long shuttered and disused after the mines moved out, and the elements had worn away the cheap plywood nailed onto its windows and doors to keep people out.

Her feet hit concrete.

The trail had turned into a road. She rounded a turn and stepped into cold sunlight.

Beneath her in a small clearing was what remained of a small mining camp. The buildings were small, square and crumbling, connected by a single cracked, worn concrete road. Their windows were long shattered, black holes in the weathered brick. 

Luanne walked down into it, marveling at how empty and desolate it was. The mines had packed up and head out decades ago, leaving nothing but shells. She'd had no idea about this camp so deep in the mountains, and wondered how many-- _if_ any--other people knew about it.

It took her a moment to realize that her dog's claws weren't clicking on the road behind her. She turned. "Come on, Buddy!"

Buddy was standing at the beginning of the road, by the treeline. He had his tail tucked between his hind legs.

"Buddy!"

He lowered his head and paced a few steps, then looked up and whined.

"C'mere boy!" 

He whimpered.

Luanne gave up and began walking again. The dark holes in the buildings seemed to stare blankly down at her. The air was very still, and weighed heavy on her ears. 

The only sound echoing through the abandoned buildings were her footsteps. 

Piles of scrap and broken mining machinery lay in heaps around the camp, browning and rusting in the sun. 

One building was two stories tall, framed with arches on the bottom floor that glared into black nothing. It had a gaping hole in its roof, its innards lying bare to the sun

Luanne ducked inside, and was met by a wave of wet, freezing chill. Out of the sunlight, her eyes struggled to adjust. 

The inside was damp and peeling, with gaping holes in the floor and piles of discarded tools all around. The window on the wall was still covered with nailed planks, and an upturned desk seemed to have been smashed in half. A pickaxe leaned against the wall, its rust spidering onto the wall around it.

There was a tall, rotten staircase to the side, which she took. The first step sagged under her boot, and creaked alarmingly, but she gripped the bannister and hauled herself up.

The top floor was bare, not even a piece of furniture or tool. Planks peeling off the walls, and a steady raindrip making its way dark down the wooden wall to pool on the floor.

Dim sunlight flooded in onto the faded floor. There was a yawning hole smashed into the sturdy roof, by the elements, by man or something else. In any case, it was jagged, as if it had been ripped right off the infrastructure by some rabid animal, leaving broken planks and jagged edges of the roof behind. She looked out the hole into the blue sky, breathing in the fresh air away from the dank, rotting air behind her.

The chill down her spine intensified as she heard a creak behind her.

Luanne turned and walked down the stairs, then stepped out of the house, feeling vaguely unsettled. A chill breeze picked up the ends of her blonde hair.

The browning, snow-streaked hills surrounded her, bare and so _still._ She felt as if the world had stopped in time, and it was only her, wandering alone through the mountains, to prove it.

Luanne walked a little more through the buildings, not quite wanting to leave but not quite wanting to stay. She wondered if kids drank and partied here in the summer, but it didn't seem like it. The walls were blank, not a single lick of graffiti on their walls. There were no crumpled beer cans lying in the grass. It was like it was in a frozen stasis.

The road faded into brown weeds right where an old trestle began, teetering precariously on rotted wood. She hiked a little ways up the hill, following it, until a large, yawning hole came into sight, carved into the hill.

Luanne recognized it for what it was--an open-shaft mine. For whatever reason, it hadn't been filled in--maybe they thought nobody would come this far into the mountains.

She stared hard into it. It was black and endless, and not even the winter sunlight seemed to penetrate into it. Just looking at it made color bloom in her eyes.

Suddenly, a low whine started deep inside the cave. For a moment she thought it might have been rusty machinery, or an animal, but she suddenly recognized it as the wail of a baby.

Worry leaped into her throat. She fumbled for her flashlight and flicked it on. "Hey!" She called, her voice echoing to vanish deep inside the mine. "Anybody there?"

Her flashlight shone off a toppled-over coal cart. Other than that, it was empty. The blue beam illuminated the damp, slimy walls as she waded forward. 

The sound pierced her ears, constant and unwavering

_unwavering_

The moment Luanne realized it, a prickle came over her shoulders. She was into the mine by then. She strained to listen to the sound that bounced off the cave walls.

It was loud and high, the tenor of a baby's wail, but it did not drop or gasp like a baby's voice. It did not die out as it took a breath. It was completely flat, a single note like a violin drawn across the strings in one long screech. It was _wrong,_ in only a way a human could notice.

The walls closed in on her, dark and wet. She was surrounded, she was pressed in on all sides.

Luanne backed away one step away.

The wail cut away abruptly, as if it had never even existed.

Luanne was out of the cave in half a second, her legs pounding as they took her down the empty gray road. The tall brick buildings stared after her as she reached the treeline, chest heaving, rifle banging against her back.

It was as if something primal had erupted inside her, a fight or flight instinct triggered somewhere in her lizard brain.

Luanne took the trail uphill, never stopping, and even when it climbed steeper and snowier she didn't stop. She passed by the corpse of the deer stuck in the tree, glassy dead eyes staring down at her as she passed underneath the tree.

She skidded down the mountain, snow packing itself in her boots, her rifle coming loose from the crook of her arm. When the flat yellow-lined road came into view, she almost wept in relief.

Buddy was waiting for her in the cranny by the road, sitting morosely with his ears pricked. As soon as he saw her he erupted, tackling her, she she sunk to her knees, hugging him. "Oh Jesus, Buddy. Oh God. You wouldn't--I just--"

Tears of fear were starting in her eyes.

***

When she went to school the next day, she was relieved to see her best friend Janann waiting by the lockers. "Jam!" She said, using her childhood nickname as she squeezed her in a hug. "How did your appendectomy go?"

Janann lifted the edge of her shirt, showing a pink stapled scar, and winced. "It sucked. And there were complications, so I had to stay in the hospital for _months."_

"At least you got to stay out of school." Luanne laughed. It felt strange, it had been so long since the last time she had laughed. "Glad to have you back, girl."

They began to walk to their lockers. Janann was chunky as opposed to Luanne's skinny, with frizzy red hair and a smattering of acne. They looked as different as could be, but they had been close friends since a young age. "So, what have you been doing since--" Jannan started as Luanne grabbed her locker handle.

Something wet soaked into her hand, and she yanked it away. There was blood staining her fingers.

A burst of laughter down the hall made her whip around. Jason McLaughlin, Amber Avery and their clique of cohorts were laughing, some doubled over. "Ugly-ass skank! **"** One of Jason's football friends yelled.

There was a used tampon taped to the underside of her locker handle. Luanne's face burned.

Janann half turned away, head bowed as the rest of the hall erupted in giggles. She had never been the kind to stand up for her friend, but Luanne didn't blame her. One tilt in her direction and the brunt of the bullying would fall on her.

***

Luanne washed off her hands in the school bathroom, trying to get the stench of old, rotted blood off. Jannan leaned against the sink. "I'm sorry, Lulu. Jason, Amber, Landon, they're all dicks, they've always been dicks…"

Luanne wiped away her tears of humiliation. "I'm gonna be gone after this year anyway," she said savagely. "I'll be in college in Huntington or Philly and, you know what? They're not gonna do shit with their lives. They already get shitty test scores. Jason's gonna be some local corrupt cop and Amber will get knocked up by a redneck and they're gonna rot here for the rest of their lives!"

Janann squeezed her wrist. "Don't let them get to you. That's what they want to see. C'mon, just forget about them. What were you up to while I was in the hospital?"

Yesterday's memory rose sharp and strange in her mind. Luanne swallowed. "Yeah, actually… I went hunting yesterday and something strange happened. Jannan, you know up by Breakbone Ridge? You've been up there before, right?"

"Yeah, my cousins used to to drag me up there to go mudding. What about it?"

"Have you ever found, like, a town there? An abandoned one? Sort of like a camp, with empty buildings and a…"

The hair on the back of her neck prickled.

"...mine?"

Janann scratched her scar. "No, don't think so. Breakbone Ridge is waaaay the fuck out there, though, and I never went too deep into the woods. Why, did you hear about one?"

"No, I found one while I was hunting. It was weird and empty… sort of like people had just packed up and left and never came back. And there was an open-shaft mine near it, and I went in it and heard this, this _sound_. It's hard to explain…"

The memory of the sound made her stomach clench sickeningly.

"It was like… a baby crying, but _wrong_. I read an article a while ago that says cats meow the way they do because they're mimicking human babies... and it kind of felt like that… like I was almost being, I don't know... lured?"

Luanne's voice broke off, shaking too badly for her to continue. Janann eyed her skeptically. "It probably _was_ just a cat. Or some other animal, like a bird that got trapped in there. You're overthinking this. It's an old mine, you're going to hear strange things. Hey, you know what it was? I bet it's just old rusty machinery in the mine. I've seen YouTube videos, that happens all the time when people explore and stuff."

The bell rang, startling them both abruptly. "Shit, that was the late bell. We're gonna be in trouble with Miss Clancy."

***

Miss Clancy had written both of them up for being late. Janann was due to help clean up the cafeteria, and Luanne was assigned to the gym room. "Life skills," Clancy had said.

Luanne hoisted a mat over her shoulder and dumped it on the pile of other mats. By the time she was done, her arms were aching and her face was flushed. She couldn't wait to finish, go home and rest. Just as she was wistfully fantasizing, the door to the gym opened.

Half-expecting Miss Clancy or the janitor, Luanne turned around, but froze when she saw who it was.

Jason McLaughlin was standing there, his tank top stained with sweat and his arms crossed loosely. "Well, well, well. What do we have here? Is lil' Lulu finally waiting for her janitor boyfriend to come so they can fuck?"

Luanne gritted her teeth. "I'm… just helping to clean up.

"Or maybe it's that fat friend of yours? The one you're always hanging around with? I bet you're eating each others' pussy in the bathroom every day."

"I'm done. I'm leaving anyway."

"Not so fast, bitch." The harshness of the word grated on her ears. He took out a knife from his waistband and pointed it at her.

"Show me your tits."

"What?" Her chest became ice cold.

He moved casually blocked the exit to the gym. Luanne's heart began to thud sickeningly. "Wh… what are you doing?"

"You've been slutting yourself to everyone who even looks at you, and I don't wanna be left out. Show me your tits."

"I never--" the words _I'm a virgin_ swam in her throat, but died as Jason stepped forward, the tip of the knife hovered over her neck. His face had flattened, become predatory, eyes gleaming eagerly. "Take it off."

Shaking, her legs weak and her belly swimming sickeningly, she slowly unzipped her jacket and rolled up her sweater. Her pink nipples hardened in the cold air of the gym.

His green eyes pierced her, a vicious split grin on his face, and he stepped forward to take a handful in his hand. 

"Wh--why--"

"Shut the fuck up." His voice was a harsh growl. He cupped her first breast, as if weighing it, then slowly slid a thumb over her ripe pink nipple. Then he greedily began to palm both, fingers sinking into and twisting her sensitive skin. His palms were warm and sweaty, but it just made the contrast of damp cold of the air and warmth on her breasts feel all the more sickening.

"Not bad. You always looked like a fuckin washboard to me, but I guess it was just those ugly bulky sweaters. Your tits were pretty tiny last I saw them on the soccer field, but I guess you really grownup. They're a nice handful now."

He squeezed her breast, kneading it so hard that his thumbprint bruised her skin. He licked his lips, watching her with cold eyes from beneath the fringe of his dark eyelashes. His hair was becoming damp with sweat, plastering to the nape of his neck.

"How about you pull down your panties too? Let me see if your pussy's tight and pink or if it's all spread out, if you've been slutting around stuffing all those cocks in it?"

Luanne couldn't take it. The humiliation, the cruelty in his voice. The coldness seeping into her bones. His cruel grip kneading her small breasts, his disgusting voice, they were too much for her to take!

"I have to go!" She shouted, trying to keep the sob out of her voice. Luanne lashed out with her leg, slamming her sole into his kneecap, and yanked herself away with one movement. The edge of the knife nicked her just as it was knocked away, and in the space of a second she burst out the gym doors, yanking her sweater down. She did not stop running until she was on the sidewalk out of school, and it took her the first turn that made the school disappear from behind her before the humiliation and misery caught up to her.

Luanne cried all the way back home. She hated everything. She hated Jason McLaughlin and his hard, violating grip, and his cruel insults, the way he had made her life a living hell since third grade. The way he had relentlessly separated her from the "pack" of high school students, made her an outcast **,** made her feel like _nothing_. 

She hated her grandparents who only paid attention to her when they wanted to use her to to take a side against her other grandparent. She hated the coldness, the coldness in her heart and the coldness of her decaying town. She knew the razor blade scars on her arm would get split open tonight.

The droplet of blood snaked down her neck and over her collarbone like the tip of a warm tongue.

***

The weekend had come, and Luanne had never been so glad to see it. She spent the morning drinking hot chocolate with Buddy on the porch, listening to the radio and watching the wind sweep over the trees. The snow had mostly melted, and the vibrancy of the pines speckled the brown and desolate mountains.

Buddy licked her hand briefly and warmly. She ruffled his floppy ears. "It looks like a nice day. You want to go hunting?"

Usually Buddy perked up at the word _hunting,_ but this time he laid his head down, staring at her morosely. 

"Hunting, boy! Hunting!"

Buddy skulked inside, head low. She sighed. "Guess I'm going alone, then."

As she grabbed her rifle and boots from inside, Grandpa Mike eyed her with his good eye as he read the paper.

"Lulu, you pick me up some butter and sugar on the way back if you're goin' huntin. Don't know why you bother goin' there in the first place. Ain't nothin' up there. You're wasting your time when you could be doin' something useful."

"Okay, pops."

"You're just like your mother, Lulu. You're too much of a loner. Always shirkin' your responsibilities. Runnin off somewhere or another. One day you'll end up just like her if you don't settle down. Speakin' of your mom, why don't you go visit her? You ain't seen her in months."

"Pidgeonwood Penitentiary is a five hour bus ride."

"You know she misses you."

"Then how come she never calls?" Lulu snapped, her nerves fraying, and she slammed the door after her so hard the house shook.

***

The day was crisp and chilly, and she wore her jeans and a red sweater over her thick coat. The hood was pulled over her blonde hair and zipped up to her chin. She took the road up the deep mountains, and then the trail that split off into Breakbone Ridge. There was another trail of footprints that led up the trail, and she wondered if she would meet someone. She would have to be careful, but it made her feel relieved that there was someone up in Breakbone Ridge besides her.

Luanne took the split path that led away from the tree where she had found the deer. Even seeing the path skeeved her out. She wasn't sure whether she would hunt it again until the spring.

The forest was vibrant that day, even for midwinter. Birds chirped and undergrowth rustled with animals bounding out of her way. She liked the noise. It made her feel like she was part of the forest.

She hiked towards the hunter's perch she usually used. Old Man Barlow had built it years ago, and it was used by practically every hunter on Breakbone Ridge.

The hunter's perch was set up on the very top of Breakbone Ridge. It was a wooden box set high up in an oak tree, supported by the thick, strong branches. She slung her rifle over her shoulder and began to climb the ladder, hauling herself arm over arm. When she reached the door she swung it open with a sigh and relief, entered and began to stomp the remnants of melting snow off her boots.

"Well, what a surprise. What the hell you doin' here, Lulu?"

The voice made her freeze and her throat tighten up. "I didn't know you hunted Breakbone Ridge, Jason."

Jason gave a sneer as he leaned back, tapping the rifle on the floor between his legs. "Was a nice day. Gonna see if I can bag a doe."

He was wearing a camouflage coat and sturdy hunting jeans, and his light brown hair was as unruly and curly as it had always been. His lips was curved in that soft almost-pout he'd had since he was a child, that cute, coy expression that made everyone fawn over him. _Well, Luanne, if he yanked down your shirt in front of the school, that's obviously your fault, isn't it? Jason's the high school football captain and his daddy's the sherriff. And you're just poor white trash with your mom in the clink._

Luanne sat down opposite him, wondering if-- and when-- she should go. She had her gun with her. If he tried anything, she'd be prepared. "Well, if I'd known, I wouldn't have come up here."

"We might as well make the most of it, if we're stuck together for now." Jason thumbed the snout of his gun. He was watching her carefully, attentively, the way he often did when he thought she wasn't watching.

She didn't answer, just looked out the window. There was a gorgeous view from the perch, of the sweeping mountains below her. They swelled and curved, so vast they stretched from one horizon to the other. The dead brown landscape was dotted with the bright green of trees that had kept their bloom. Like drops of paint onto a canvas. She focused on it to keep her mind off him.

The blonde girl searched for the telltale movement of a deer, the small tan speck moving across the landscape, the crackles of leaves as it moved beneath them. She strained her eyes but saw nothing. Her neck prickled.

"You know, I been kind of mean to you. Callin' you ugly and such." His voice was soft. Unusually soft. "But… I been thinkin'. You ain't so ugly. In fact, you're kinda cute when you take your glasses off."

She turned back in surprise, and met his hand, which was pulling off her glasses. He was closer now, face strangely thoughtful.

"You got pretty eyes. Blue eyes **.** When I was a little kid, I couldn't stop staring at them. Remember when we were in third grade? I was sitting next to you? I kept pulling at your hair… it was so light and blonde. It looked like a movie star's. You kept it in pigtails back then. You should put it back the way it was." His voice was different now, not his usual deep guttural tone. It sounded quieter, closer to when he was a child **.**

Luanne felt a creeping sense of unease, being so close to him in such a small space. "Give me my glasses back." 

Jason held them out of her reach, smiling teasingly with one edge of his lip raised.

"How bout a little kiss first? Right on my lips. Then I'll give you your glasses back." Jason pursed his plump lips.

Luanne was starting to panic. "Give them back!"

He was shifting away now, and grabbed her wrist hard. It was too close, he was too close, she couldn't grab her gun in such a close space. He pulled her towards him, lips groping for hers, and she managed to yank herself out of his grip and fumble for the ladder. 

She had just reached the bottom when he casually jumped from halfway up to land on the ground. "I ain't fuckin done with you, get back here!" His voice was a snarl, and his eyes were flashing green venom, and as she began to run, he caught up to her in three long strides and forced her around to face him.

Jason crushed his lips against hers in one hard, cruel movement, forcing her lips open and thrusting his tongue inside. He exhaled, excited and sucking hard, his arms wrapped around her and pressing her to him so hard that her ribcage felt like it was gasping for air. 

The boy's mouth was warm against hers, strangely soft yet brutally pushing his tongue inside. He kissed her hungrily, like he was trying to suck her breath right out of her body. His throat convulsed against hers, warm and sweat-sheened, and his grip was trembling and fumbling the way only a teenage boy's was.

Luanne felt, with a sudden wave of nausea washing over her, a hard edge pressing against the thigh of her jeans. It was huge, like he was fisting his hand and pressing it underneath the denim.

Jason pulled his lips away for a moment to rasp against her ear, "You know I was just kiddin' with you before, in school. I don't think you been fucked by anyone. No one'd ever wanna fuck you but me, Lulu." He laughed for a moment, that bright, mean, cruel laugh he made when he slammed someone into the ground on the football field, except rawer somehow. More excited.

"You know what, I don't think you're a slut. I bet you never have been **.** I bet I'm the first cock that'll ever fuck that tight little pussy of yours. You know you're gonna love it. I got a big dick and I know how to use it. One deep, hard fuck from me and you'll be coming back for more." 

With his words, a sickening lurch hit her belly. He devoured her lips with his again, smelling of sweat and dirt and the sterile nylon of his camo jacket.

Luanne had never thought this was what her first kiss would be like. His mouth withdrew disgustingly with a heavy pop, tongue flicking out to lick his glistening lips. It was nothing like the gentle, feather-light brush she had imagined her first kiss would be.

Jason's cold hand dove underneath the buckle of her jeans, his finger wriggling into the tight cleft between her legs. She twisted her hips, but his grip on her waist was hard as iron.

His finger forced into her dry entrance, his harsh, calloused skin scraping her tender lips as he dug his fingertip into her inner wall. 

**"** Yeah. You're tight. I can feel you clenching around my finger. I'm gonna have a lot of fun with you from now on." 

He punctuated his words with a heavy thrust, and his clothed cock ground into her buttocks. 

The woods were so silent. They were motionless as they watched her, staring silently at her panic and terror like a rabbit fighting out of the jaws of a fox, and the despair that was slowly creeping up on her.

Luanne clawed her way out of his grip, tearing away just long enough to try and stumble up the hill, only to be mercilessly pulled back by the back of her jeans.

Jason yanked her back mercilessly and turned her around to face him. He covered her with another brutal kiss, more like an animal ravaging her mouth. He shoved her forward forcefully so that she stumbled and fell backwards, and her elbows crunched down into the snow.

His brown hair brushed her jaw as he shifted his body on top of her. When he pulled back, his legs pinned hers to the frozen grass, shirt hanging loosely off his lean body.

***

Luanne was on the ground.

_This was not happening._

Jason, the boy who had tormented her through her entire childhood and made her wish for death, was on top of her--cock rock hard, fingers searching, mouth bruising her ear. His eyes glinting venom, his lips drawn in a lustful snark. "Shit. Shit! Your tits are just as fucking soft as I'd thought," he rasped, palming her cold, ripe breasts, roughly tweaking her nipple.

Jason was trying to wrestle her sweater above her breasts, and Luanne fruitlessly attempted to shove him off, her head thrown backwards and tears streaking her cheeks. "Please, just let me--let me go right now, I won't tell, I promise I won't tell--" her voice was vulnerable and pathetic and girlish, like those girl toy commercials on TV of little girls squealing in delight over their plastic ponies.

But Jason was wrapped up in himself, not even hearing her words. His green eyes burned with contempt, towards either him or her, she couldn't say. They were hot and boiling with nasty, humiliated lust, and his soft brown curls tickled her face as she hissed, his voice hoarse and guttural.

"Yeah, you like that? You've got a tight pussy. I bet my dick's gonna be the first to ram up in there. I don't think you ever fucked the janitor, or your zitty friend. You're too ugly for that. You have a little tucked away pussy _ready for me."_

 _Chirp chirp,_ said an early spring bird. It's lonely voice echoed through the empty forest.

"Lulu, I always wanted to do this. Always. I swore I was gonna ruin you. Break your--your hymen. Kiss you." His guttural voice washed over her ear. His waist was already thrusting, prematurely and instinctively as a dog would. 

Jason's body was hard and muscled, from his chest to his arms. His heavy jaw, his green eyes. Green as a grass stubble field. His light hair sticking to his shoulders, dark with sweat even in the cold winter air. 

Luanne slapped him hard with the last of her strength, fury welling hysterical, and screamed at him long enough until his fist crunched into her nose. Pain exploded across her face, and she collapsed, clutching her bleeding nose.

Jason's hot breath washed over her ear. "Oh fuck-- _fuck--"_ his mouth was on her nipple then. He sucked and devoured her pink, sensitive nub, lovingly twirling it in his damp, hot mouth. The saliva froze whenever his warm mouth left her breast. Her pussy was heating up. The cries of crows echoed distantly in her ears as wetness stained his searching fingers.

He was undoing his pants. The red tip of his cock poked out of his dark green fly.

She still had her hands over her nose, blood spurting between the gaps of her fingers.

It _hurt._

But everything he had ever done to her had _hurt._

Her jeans were around her ankles. Her bare pussy was exposed to the chill air. She arched her back, fought, dug her elbows into the frost-stiffened blades of glass, but the stagnant, surrendering part of her could do nothing but limply flail her legs when he mounted her between her thighs. The red-hot head of his cock was a shock of warmth to her chilled, tightly closed pussy lips.

He gave one deep thrust, and it only went halfway. The tear along her tender passage made her scream and arch her back against the prickling dead leaves on the hill.

Jason's face bared in a snarl. He was like an animal, curly hair wild, white teeth bared, eyes wild as green fire. "Damn. You're too dry." He tore her jeans down beneath her knees and delved his head between her thighs. "I'll warm you up a bit first."

Luanne sobbed, but no one heard her.

No one but the dark, spidering branches, casting shadows on the dead mossy ground from the cold dim sunlight above them.

No one but something lurking deep in the forest, ever since the Appalachians had torn themselves out of the ground, since the tectonic plates had shifted, since North America had been Pangaea.

His wet, rough tongue scraped her like sandpaper, drawing harshly over her clit and making a brutal, spasmodic pleasure erupt inside her belly. The wetness, the cruel attention he gave to that small, sensitive little nub, it was--

It was--

Likenothing she had ever felt before. Her entire lower body contracted, spasmed. Even with her back pressed against the prickly, frosted woods grass **,** his hot slippery tongue edged her nearer and nearer to climax, her face flushing, her nipples perking, her mouth curved and gasping--

And she hated it, she knew she hated it, she hated _him,_ but--

He gave one last lick deep inside her, then flicked the tip of his tongue against her sensitive clit.

She climaxed.

***

Luanne came suddenly, joltingly, the sudden pleasure turning her insides to liquid .

Luanne was lying on her back, twigs and rocks digging into her soft shoulderblades. She stared up blankly at the creeping brown branches of the trees edging into the white sky. Her legs were spread obscenely, ankles dug into the muddy earth, her thighs freezing. She tasted blood slowly dripping down onto her lips.

Jason's cock was still red and erect. His pants were around his knees. His light hair hung to tickle his cheekbones, shielding his face until all she could see was his cruel, etched smile.

"Ready for round two, you little slut?"

He threw himself over her again, smothering her with his kisses and his heavy body, and his dick penetrated her so deeply she felt like she was being impaled, and she _screamed._

Jason's cock was red-hot and slippery, pulsing and hard in her tender insides. He started a heavy rhythm immediately, hands slammed on the ground on each side of her face.

The worst part was hearing his gasps and grunts, right next to her ear, with his curly brown hair brushing her cheek. His voice was thick with rasping pleasure. His hips were thrusting rapidly and mercilessly, obsessed with nothing but sheathing himself as deep as he could inside her, until his throbbing head reached the small lips of her cervix. 

Jason brutally rammed his cock against it, forcing them apart, and the tip welled with fertile precum, leaking into her small, unready womb.

The pleasure was burning along Luanne's spine, fighting neck and neck with the pain. A particularly hard cockvein was pressed against her clit, and she could feel it with every throb. The little warm sensitive nub was being rubbed and stimulated, making soft shocks of pleasure spread through her belly and into her small pink nipples. She had to restrain herself from arching her hips down and taking every swollen inch of cock inside her to bursting.

The boy slammed her against the side of the dirty, decaying hill of Breakbone Ridge, each thrust making splintered twigs and rocks bury themselves into her back.

"You ain't gonna say shit about this," Jason hissed coldly in her ear. "My daddy's the Sheriff. I can do whatever I want to you and you won't be able to do jack about it. So keep your mouth shut about this, or else."

The side of Jason's head was pressed to hers as he whispered in her ear, and her face was buried in his soft white neck, inhaling the smell of sweat and winter.

"Oh-- _fuck!"_ He was close. The brunette boy's thrusts had become erratic. His dick was pulsing quicker and quicker, burrowing into her soft walls. The edges of the helmet dragged down and up her ripe red insides, stimulating places she never even knew existed and making her clit twitch and her legs tremble. Luanne's voice stuck in her mouth as something swelled inside her, starting deep in her belly and rising up to her breasts and face in a shuddering earthquake of pure, _sweet_ pleasure.

The girl felt the tip of his cock swell, and had just enough time to lash out with her legs before he let loose a stream of warm, thick seed into her waiting womb.

Luanne stayed still, breathing heavily. Her blonde hair was spread over the ground as she stared blankly at the sky. It was white, a neverending expanse. As white as her mind felt. 

She dimly noticed Jason standing up, pulling his jeans up and buckling them. That gave her impetus to sit up as well. Her body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds as she lifted herself up on her hands, her pants around her ankles and her knees spread obscenely wide. She looked down and saw her pussy, red and spread like a piece of pulverized meat **,** the lips torn back to reveal a thin dribble of semen that leaked down to stain the brown leaves. 

Luanne couldn't tear her eyes away from that smear of white. It was watery, thick, dripping off the trampled leaves in a thin droplet. 

The pleasure had ebbed away slowly, letting cold creep back into her body. 

Jason smiled and held out his arm. "I'm so goddamn sorry. I really am. I shouldn't have said that to you. I shouldn't have treated you like that. You're a good woman, you know? You ain't like those other sluts with their tit implants and their puffy red lips and their makeup slathered all over their face. You're someone to settle down with, you know? Someone who doesn't talk back and who does as she's told. Someone to stay at home and raise kids with. How about we meet in the gym again tomorrow? Then afterwards, we can go to that little restaurant they just opened. I'll pay and everything. Like a real man." He sounded like he was talking to himself. He sounded like he was justifying himself. He sounded almost _ashamed_.

Luanne's head was light. All she could hear were her shallow breaths. 

The forest had gone completely quiet.

Luanne saw, in front of her, her life stretching to infinity. She saw herself buying a pregnancy test in four weeks, sitting on the toilet with her arms wrapped around her shaking body. She saw the two red lines burning into her eyes like strips of fire **.** She saw herself marrying Jason McLaughlin in the local plywood church, with the pastor officiating who was always drunk. She saw his body on top of hers, night after night, forcing her down and shoving his cock into her and slapping her if she cried too much. 

Jason joining the army, working at the gas well, working as a police officer, working at the local hardware store. Luanne going through an awful, painful birth that gave her nothing but grief. Having a plastic playset in their front yard, becoming wet and discolored as the sun's years took their toll on it. The first baby of many, and those kids having kids, and their own kids' having kids, and all of them living with Luanne as their parents, just as their grandparents had, in the same block, in the same house--

Her worst nightmare was coming to fruition with the seed dripping out of her.

Jason looked down at her, head tilted, soft brown curls falling to brush his shoulders. His eyes were green and gentle and the smile over his broad jaw was wide and sunny. 

She took his hand and rose to her feet shakily and pulled her pants up. Snow was soaking into her ankles. She felt Jason drape his heavy coat around her. "C'mon. Let's go home. I'll take you back to your grandparents'." His voice was gentle. Too gentle. Luanne's nose bled onto her collar, speckling it with droplets of red.

He put his arm around her--protectively, posessively--and led her up the trail.

It was _so quiet._

The remnants of the leaves on the branches lay still in the silent air, their brown tips turned upward against the sky.

Not even a brush of air or a rustle of leaves. Not the call of a bird. It was as if they had frozen in time, becoming trapped as a fly in amber.

The silence weighed on her ears like white noise. 

Her legs were weak. "Jason," she said. He didn't answer. His eyes were wide, looking out over the mountains. There was something in his posture that had stilled, like an animal waiting for the movement of a predator in the bush.

Her fingers bit into his arm.

"Jason," she said. "We need to go."

Far away, on the top of the hill, the tip of a pine tree began to rustle. Tilting to the side. Just a little bit. Between reams of frozen, still trees.

A primal, heavy panic blurred her eyes, made her entire body seize. "RUN!" She screamed, and she whipped around and began to run, her boots slipping and crunching on the frozen ground as she set off at a breakneck pace.

Every molecule of her body was rebelling instinctively, coalescing into one thought: _run run run get out of here run run run RUN_

Jason was right behind her, swearing, his heavy footsteps thudding an inch behind. Luanne was lighter than him and more nimble, but the pain between her legs crippled her, made her sob deep in her throat. As Luanne jumped over a log, pain lanced between her legs and made blood stain the crotch of her jeans with a dark, spreading blotch.

Luanne could hear, up above them in the distance, the cracking of branches, the sound of the trees--thrashing, like they were wind-whipped, but the thrashing she could tell was coming from something _alive--_ something _hunting_ them--

The mountain ridge was at a steep incline, and she climbed it head-on, scrambling to get up and over. Jason was stronger but heavier, and he struggled to keep up behind her. She could hear his panicked gasps, taking on a high, keening tone as pain bled into his voice. She grabbed a sapling and hauled herself up, her heart thudding, her insides aching, her eyes wild and tearing and she heard a _crack_ almost like the crack of a neck but when she turned around Jason was wild-eyed and pale but alive, and _it was getting closer._

She was not getting over the hill in time.

In the split second Luanne realized it, her eyes met Jason's. His fists were gripping a clump of grass, eyes wide and tears of fear making streaks down his cheeks, and when their eyes joined, his face slackened as she raised her rifle and the realization hit.

The bullet tore apart his leg at the knee, and he collapsed on the snow, his blood spraying droplets of red over the pure white. _"Mom,"_ he sobbed.

The last view she ever had of him was his destroyed knee and the slowly spreading pool of blood seeping into the snow.

As she reached the top of the ridge, a sound pierced her ears from behind her Jason's high, inhuman wail like the cry of a caught rabbit, something so raw and tortured that her entire body reacted instinctively _and she scrabbled and joined her voice in a scream_

_as she crawled her way over the hill her fingernails digging dirt underneath_

_as she tumbled over the other side of the hill, snow covering her as she rolled over the ridge and rolled and rolled and rolled_

_and everything went dark._

_***_

Luanne came to, at the bottom of the hill. Above her she saw the white sky peering through the dark fingers of branches above her.

The coo of a mourning dove echoed distantly through the grove of darkening trees.

She pulled herself up. The back of her coat and hair were encrusted in snow. She knew she should have felt cold, but she just felt blank.

Luanne began walking slowly. Her boots trudged through the shelves of mud and snow. She took the deep trail down to the bottom of Breakbone Ridge. 

She walked down the empty road, slick and black with melted snow in the dimming evening. The sky shone a darkening blue as she reached her farmhouse. 

The smell of cornbread wafted into her nose, and a surge of hunger hit her belly, but the thought of eating made her sick.

Buddy was cowering under the porch. He perked up when he saw her and crawled out, ears pinned back and tail tucked between his legs. He whined and followed her up the steps. Luanne went inside her old, familiar, peeling home and was hit by a wave of warmth from the crackling fire.

"Lulu honey, you want some vegetable soup and cornbread? Your grandmother just made some," said Grandpa Mike, cleaning his revolver in his favorite overstuffed armchair.

The blond girl shook her head mutely. When she was in her bedroom she locked the door, latched the window, drew the curtains tight and pulled Buddy into bed with her.

Every gust of wind that hit the window pane made her shiver. She huddled under the covers of her bed, holding Buddy close with her arms wound around the coarse fur of his trembling body. He let out a whimper whenever the wind rattled the window.

Luanne slept, but did not dream.

***

_"The search for missing teenager Jason McLaughlin is ongoing… search dogs have canvassed the forest, a missing person's alert has been issued… McLaughlin was last seen walking up the road to Breakbone Ridge to hunt on the evening of December 3…"_

The newscaster was flushed, with smeared lipstick, and behind her roaring searchlights bathed the dark side of the mountain. The roar of the helicopters almost drowned her voice out.

"Someone's always goin' missing round here" said Grandma as she mended the ripped neckline of a shirt. "They'll find him soon enough, prolly got lost. Kids nowadays can't remember to clean their own rooms, what makes you think they'll remember to bring along a dadgum compass?"

Lulu was watching TV with her grandma and grandpa on the red, threadbare couch, bare legs tucked under her. She lay down and rested her head on Buddy's side, listening to his heart thump.

"I'm just glad they're showin' something besides those federal agents disappearing in Arizona, or those Chattanooga murders. They been on the news for months," groused Grandpa Mike.

The newscaster was interviewing Sheriff McLaughlin, who was boot deep in a snowdrift, flakes stuck to his beard.

 _"I just want my boy back, ma'am."_ His voice was gruff, but Luanne could hear the tremble beneath it. _"He's my only… I won't stop til I've found him, swear to Christ."_

A photo of Jason McLaughlin appeared on the television screen. His ROTC portrait, beret perched on his curling brown hair, medals pinned to his navy blue uniform. He had that movie star grin on his face, a wide smile showing crinkled eyes and dimples on his cheeks.

_"If seen, please call 9-11 or report to the McDowell County Sheriff's Office."_

As the news faded to a commercial break, Grandma lit a cigarette. "Say, Lulu, weren't you up on Breakbone Ridge when that boy disappeared?"

The lights of the television reflected dully off her blue eyes.

"Yeah," she said softly. "Didn't see hide nor hair of him, though."

***

The sun was peeping through the dim clouds the next time Luanne walked to school. The mood of the school was somber. There was no chattering or laughing in the halls, and no catty comments or bullying directed toward Luanne.

She saw Amber Avery with her cluster of friends by her locker. Amber was crying, tears streaking down her red cheeks. Her usually shiny, pin-straight chestnut hair was dull and greasy.

Luanne came up to her. "I'm sorry about Jason. I knew you were close. I really hope they find him." She enveloped the girl in a tight hug, pressing her face into her shoulder as she sobbed.

With her mouth right next to Avery's ear, she whispered, "It's a god damn shame you didn't disappear along with him." When they separated, Avery's face was blank and confused; Luanne gave her a comforting smile and walked on down the hallway.

***

Luanne and Janann sat together at lunch, on the bench outside the school. The sky was clearing, bathing the concrete with the first snatches of spring light.

Jannan bit into her baloney sandwich. "So, you heard back from Morgantown State yet? Did they accept you into their program?"

Luanne looked at her own half-eaten sandwich. "Not yet. To be honest, I might not even go."

"What?" Jannan sounded shocked. "This is your only chance to get outta here! You've been talking about being a nurse since fourth grade! Why--"

Luanne smiled. She looked up at the brick building of her high school, that familiar building she had spent so many of her years in. The American flag waved on the flagpole in the chill breeze. 

Down the street was the Methodist church she had gone to with her grandparents as a young child. Beyond it was shuttered storefronts, hunting and hardware stores with their signs peeling, small bakeries tucked away like diamonds between the blank, empty abandoned storefronts. She could smell the fresh-baked bread from down the street.

And the mountains. Those brown ridges, trees sticking up like the bones of a ribcage, clustered together so tightly her eyes could barely penetrate beyond them. Tall, dead, and protecting them. A vast archipelago with secrets upon secrets locked up beneath the earth.

"I feel safe here," she said. "I don't really think I want to leave."

***

The next spring, the mountains were in full bloom. Buds on the tips of the branches bloomed from ripe pink to flow down the tree in a wave of green leaves. The ground underneath her boots was lush with soft green grass, daisies speckling the hills like bright spots of sunlight **.**

Luanne took the trail up Breakbone Ridge. Buddy was running ahead and wagging his tail. She found the vast oak she had set up her squirrel traps by--leaves grown thick and shielding like a firework burst of green.

She followed Buddy down the trail to the mining town, jumping over grass clumps and battling through newly sprouted weeds. 

But when she reached the clearing where the mining camp had been, it was gone. There was nothing but a flat meadow, bursting with wildflowers. It had vanished like the snow, like the cold freeze had with the warming of spring.

Perhaps it had never really been there at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Who knows what's lurking deep in those mountains?  
> Had this on the backburner for awhile. Something to read in quarantine! 😊 I was inspired somewhat by creepypastas and numerous online horror stories that blur the line between reality and fiction.


End file.
